About Me

My photo
Welcome to my blog. I'm a Mississippi country girl transplanted to Grapevine, TX. I have been blessed with a great husband, and my kiddos, Aleck and Ella. When I'm not eating bon bons on the couch, I am my kid's room mom, PTA member, Sunday School teacher, taxi driver, amateur photographer and personal chef. When I'm not doing those things, I'm running a small jewelry business, 2nd Amendment Jewelry (www.2ndamendmentjewelry.com), that I started with my twin sister, Glenda. It's a crazy and busy life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in this world. I am so thankful for all the blessings in my life!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Caught Up

For the first time, in like forever, I am feeling somewhat “caught up”.  I created a weekly household chores checklist.  It has helped me be more accountable to myself, and at the same time gives me a sense of accomplishment when I check stuff off the list. 

The bathroom remodel is almost complete.  I just have a little bit of painting left.  I can’t wait to post before and after pictures.

My checkbook is balanced and my budget is planned for the summer.

School is out, which means I don’t have room mom duties to stay on top of.

I have purged toys, which makes the house so much easier to keep tidy.

Heck, I’ve even cleaned the stainless steel in the kitchen. 

It feels awesome to feel caught up.

I am, however,  pretty behind on one thing… laundry.  I have three loads of clean laundry on my bed waiting to be folded.  Thankfully, my laundry is patient.

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Since I’m officially out of my “comfortable” undies, I guess we will stay home and do laundry today. 

Today, I’m thankful for my front loader washing machine that lets me wash huge loads.  Of course, the huge loads do make it next to impossible to find the rocks banging around in the dryer.

Happy Thursday!

Bring on Summer

Yesterday was the kid's last day of school. Today, at 7:20 a.m. I was still in bed and a very happy camper, looking forward to a fun-filled summer. At 8:55 a.m., the kids have been awake for 1 1/2 hours. They are arguing over who gets the black magic marker and yelling "Mama, Mama, Mama" every 23 seconds. Now, I'm not so sure.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Favowit bankit

With a precious smile on her face, Ella just ran across the room, grabbed her “favowit bankit”, hugged it, smiled, and said, “I wuv my bankit!”

I wuv my Ella Bella!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A Morning with Aleck's Class

Aleck's teacher has been sick for several days.  I hate that she is sick and hope she feels better soon, but I got to sub today and help Mrs. Reed in Aleck's classroom.  I loved every single minute of it!  It was great to get to sit back and watch how Aleck and his classmates interact and play together.  After chapel, the kids went through centers.  At my table, we worked on number sequencing while we connected the dots to complete Ollie the Octopus.  Before lunch, we went outside to play.  The kids all wanted me to play with them.  I pushed them on the tire swing while they sang this sweet little chant of "higher, higher...higher, higher."

The kids were so well-behaved and Aleck did exactly what he was supposed to do, even though Mommy was there and they were out of the normal routine.  I couldn't have been more proud of my little man.  Who knows, maybe I'll go on the sub list when Ella starts school.  Crazier things have happened, right?

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Let’s Play Ball!

Aleck started summer baseball a few weeks ago.  This is his first time to play baseball, but he is already into it way more that he is soccer.  Since we have all been sick so much, this was my first time to see him play.  He was awesome!  Every kid got to bat twice.  Since nobody gets “out” at this level, they all crossed the home plate twice.  The look on their proud little faces was priceless.  Aleck wasn’t sure what to do when their team was in outfield, but none of the other kids really knew either.  That is, except for a little girl that played so well that I had to ask Tom, “Is that a girl?” 

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Guys doing whatever it is that they do at the beginning of the game.

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Crossing home plate

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“Did you see me, Mom?”

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Good game, dude.

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Few posts are complete without a picture of my sweet Ella Bella.

Friday, May 18, 2012

The best day, EVER!

Today was a teacher conference day at school.  I met with Mrs. Dickey and we talked about all the ways Aleck has grown this year, and the things we need to do over the summer to continue getting ready for kindergarten in the fall.  It doesn't seem possible that my little man can already be ready for kindergarten.

After the meeting, we headed to the Fort Worth Zoo.  I love that we bought a membership so we can stay for a couple of hours and I don't feel like we need to see everything.  We only saw two animals, the gorillas and flamingos, but the kids had so much fun.  We rode the train to the back of the zoo.   They love the barnyard playhouse.  Ella's favorite thing was the carousel.  Aleck's was the train.  He looked at me, smiled and said, "the best day, EVER!"

We ended the day with Aleck taking karate while Ella played on the school playground with her baby doll, Brookeandpresley.  

Best day, EVER!



Friday, May 11, 2012

Muffins with Mom Dance Video Clip

Aleck's class did this dance for the moms.  Aleck is in the orange shirt. He and Cade were struggling over who was leading the dance.  Simply adorable.

Donuts with Dad, Muffins With Mom

A couple of weeks ago, Tom went to school with Aleck for Donuts with Dad.  I didn’t get a picture of them, but this is what Aleck had to say about Daddy.  I love that Aleck thinks Tom is special because “he takes care of me.”

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   Today was my special day.  We had coffee and muffins and went to chapel with the kids.  Aleck made a book for me with answers to some questions and a picture of me. 

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Aleck’s answer to question number 2 makes me smile.  I have a picture of me riding a horse through a creek when I was on vacation in Sedona, AZ.  It was during that vacation that Tom’s emails turned romantic.  Thinking about that first romantic email still brings a smile to my face.

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Aleck’s portrait of Mommy.  I love it, green hair and all.

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Sweet boy, Mommy thinks you are the best son, ever!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Praying for Healing

Ella had her third rocephin shot yesterday.  Her ears looked some better, but they weren’t clear.  Dr. Sakseena recommended we see Dr. Murray, Ella’s ENT.  He saw Ella this afternoon and Ella had a hearing test.  She didn’t cooperate 100% with the hearing test, but she did show signs of impaired hearing.  Her ears still have fluid behind the eardrum and she will likely need to have the tubes again, but today he didn’t see signs of infection.

Since Ella has been coughing and wheezing, she had a chest x-ray this morning.  The x-ray showed pulmonary atelectasis in her left lingular lobe (partial collapse of her lung) and early pneumonia.  We started breathing treatments on Tuesday and her breathing has been better.  We are supposed to continue the antibiotics and breathing treatments and call Dr. Sakseena if Ella gets worse.

I haven’t even finished my antibiotics from my visit to the doctor last week, but I am still have an earache and sore throat and feel like crud.  I saw the NP yesterday.  Alice said my ear was clear.  She gave me a rocephin shot and a new antibiotic, augmentin. 

The doctors don’t seem overly concerned that my entire family has been sick, most of us more than once.  They think we are just passing illnesses around to each other.

Today, I am thankful for health insurance!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired

My sweet girl has been sick, off and on, for going on three weeks .   She started saying her mouth was hurting and she came down with a low grade fever so I took her to the doctor on April 19th.  Her strep test was positive so she started antibiotics.  That same day, I picked Aleck up from school and he was running a fever.  Since we were pretty certain that he also had strep, he started antibiotics.  The following week, Tom came down with the crud and spent a couple of days in bed.  You know if my husband goes to the doctor and stays in bed, he feels horrible.   I thought I was out of the woods, but I came down with strep throat last week.  Last Tuesday, Ella started running a low grade fever again.  We saw Dr. Sakseena Wednesday morning and she again tested positive for strep throat.  She started a second round of antibiotics but she hated the taste and it made her throw up so we switched her to her third antibiotic.  I thought we were out of the woods, but Ella woke up last night with a 100.4 fever.  We saw Dr. Sakseena this morning and she has a raging ear infection with pus behind her eardrum.  I asked if her ears hurt and she said, “no”.  After trying so many antibiotics (cefdinir, clindamycin and amoxicillin) Dr. Sakseena recommended a rocephin shot for three days in a row.  If you have had a rocephin shot, you know how stinking bad those things hurt.  The worst part is that the shot was actually two different shots, one in each leg.  Mommy almost cried to see her baby girl cry so hard.  When we were all done and Ella had stopped crying, I said, “Ella, you were so brave.”  She whimpered, “no, I not baive.”  It broke my heart because Ella is one tough cookie.  Many times, when something happens to her that would make other kids cry, Ella says, “I baive.” 

Dear Lord, please give Ella the strength to “be baive” tomorrow when she has to have round two of her rocephin shots.  Please give me the strength to “be baive” tomorrow when I have to take my sweet girl back into the doctor’s office, kicking and screaming, I fear.